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A benefice conferred on a person by the founder or patron, without either presentation or institution by the ordinary, or induction by his orders. See the Note under Benefice, n.,

A favorer; a patron; one who gives countenance or support; an abettor. [Obs.] The king and the fautors of his proceedings. Latimer.

A patroness. [Obs.] Chapman.

A figure of St. George (the patron saint of England) on horseback, appended to the collar of the Order of the Garter. See Garter.

A dependent and subservient hanger-on of a political patron. [Political Cant, U. S.] The army of hungry heelers who do their bidding. The Century.

Thoughtless; giddy; flighty; also, haughty; patronizing; as, to be in hoity-toity spirits, or to assume hoity-toity airs; used also as an exclamation, denoting surprise or disapprobation, with some degree of contempt. Hoity-toity! What have I to do with dreams Congreve.

om Rome by solicitation, which benefice belonged to the disposal of the king or other lay patron of the realm.

e wealth. Shak. A new hypothesis . . . which hath the incomparable Sir Isaac Newton for a patron. Bp. Warburton. -- In*com"pa*ra*ble*ness, n. -- In*com"pa*ra*bly, adv. Delights incomparably all those corporeal things. Bp. Wilkins.

resent possession of a benefice or of any office. The incumbent lieth at the mercy of his patron. Swift.

r informal dedication, as of a book to a person, as a mark of respect or an invitation of patronage.

who intrudes; especially, one who favors the appointment of a clergyman to a parish, by a patron, against the wishes of the parishioners.

from the original destination, by the omission, negligence, or failure of some one, as a patron, a legatee, etc.

A patron deity or presiding genius. Come, thou, monarch of the vine, Plumpy Bacchus. Shak.

Undue attachment to relations; favoritism shown to members of one's family; bestowal of patronage in consideration of relationship, rather than of merit or of legal claim. From nepotism Alexander V. was safe; for he was without kindred or relatives. But there was another perhaps more fatal nepotism, which turned the ti…

A patron; a protector.

The god of shepherds, guardian of bees, and patron of fishing and hunting. He is usually represented as having the head and trunk of a man, with the legs, horns, and tail of a goat, and as playing on the shepherd's pipe, which he is said to have invented.

Nourishment or support from official patronage; as, treasury pap. [Colloq. & Contemptuous]

To support; to patronize. [Obs.] Urquhart.

The act of patrocinating or patronizing. [Obs.] "Patrocinations of treason." Bp. Hall.

ho after the Turkish conquest became powerful in clerical and other offices under Turkish patronage.